Overseas Students

Non-Arrival of International Students (“No shows”)

Any student given an unconditional offer of admission (or letter of enrolment), who then fails to show up by the first day of their programme will have their enrolment cancelled and will be reported to the UK Border Agency within 10 working days. We will include the reason the applicant has given for failure to show up, for example, a missed flight. The procedure for this is outlined below.

  1. If as an international applicant, you have met our admissions criteria and completed the stipulated procedure, you will be sent an unconditional offer of admission (or letter of enrolment).
  2. Upon receipt of this, you must commence your visa application and advise us once you have been given a visa interview or when you have submitted your application to your local British Embassy.
  3. Your admission letter will only be valid for 6 months, and you can only submit your visa application 3 months to the commencement date of your programme.
  4. Once you have received your visa or received a visa refusal, you must advise us accordingly.
  5. If you have been issued a visa, it will only enable you to enter into the UK one month prior to the commencement of your programme. You must notify us as soon as you have confirmed your travel plans with the details of your flight date, arrival time, flight number and arrival terminal. This is required even if you do not wish to be met at the airport by our International Welcome Service (IWS).
  6. If you have been denied a visa, you need to notify us in writing of your intentions, so that we can respond accordingly.
  7. If you do not show up for pre-commencement registration day which is normally 2 to 3 weeks before the start of the academic year, or we have not heard from you, we will take various measures to contact you.
    1. We will phone you and also send you an email (unless you have no email address). Even if we have spoken to you by phone, we will need you to write an email or letter response to confirm your current status and intentions to us.
    2. If we have been unable to reach you by phone or email, we will write a letter to you and demand an immediate response. We will also contact your UK sponsor or contact person to notify them that we are trying to establish your current status.
    3. If we fail to hear from you or we are not satisfied with the response we receive from you, we will cancel your enrolment with us and immediately notify the UK Border Agency (within 10 working days).
  8. You are required to contact us once you arrive in the UK, and you must come in to the college for a preliminary meeting with admissions office within 7 days of your arrival; unless pre-commencement registration day is within 7 days of your arrival. Then attendance at pre-commencement registration will suffice.
  9. If we get the impression or suspect that you might have already acquired an entry visa, we will endeavour to contact you through both your overseas address and your UK address or through your sponsor.
  10. If we cannot trace you and/or you fail to show up at college as soon as you arrive, then we will likely cancel your enrolment and report you to the UK Border Agency.
  11. Whether we can later reverse the decision of a cancellation of your enrolment in the above circumstances will depend on instructions we receive from the UK Border Agency and our accreditation body regarding your case.

It is an offence for a student to arrive in the UK on a student’s visa and fail to join the college to commence their course. Any student who arrives in the UK on a student’s visa but fails to join the college will be reported to the UK Border Agency.

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